Click Here to see CLW's recent report, "Adidas, Real Winner of the 2008 Olympics".

Click Here for CLW's Statement

Click Here for Adidas Statement

 

Response to adidas' statement

On August 18 th , 2008, adidas released a response to CLW's investigative reports on the Chengda, Supercap and Chang Ye Long factories and posted the response on its website. , The company disputed CLW's findings and asserted that adidas is an exceptionally ethical corporation, providing workers with benefits and work conditions that are among the best in its industry. CLW completely rejects this response and believes that the company's actions continue to be shockingly irresponsible.

As adidas mentioned, over the past few years CLW has often brought the conditions in adidas supplier factories to the company's attention. As a small non-profit organization, CLW lacks the capacity to monitor every adidas supplier in China . We resent the fact that we must always be on the lookout for problems that the company uncovers find itself if it tried and that corrective actions are taken only when CLW brings highlights problems. In the end, adidas has the ultimate responsibility to ensure its workers are working in a fair and ethical environment.

adidas' response suggested that prior to the report release, it forwarded a request to CLW to confirm whether the reported factories were suppliers to adidas, as no addresses were given. CLW believes that s uch claim is misleading.

CLW's initial research on Adidas suppliers for these reports began in June 2008 and was based on a suppliers' list obtained from adidas' website. CLW then randomly selected three suppliers from the list and began investigations. The reports clearly stated the suppliers' addresses in both Chinese and English on the first page of each report.

adidas suppliers have branch factories, and as the branch factories are managed by the same group as the direct suppliers, similar conditions exist in all the branch factories.

After two months of research, on August 13th, CLW sent advance copies of the three reports to adidas, hoping the company would take further action and address the findings. Unfortunately, on August 15 th , the comments CLW received from adidas were mostly denials of the problems found.

CLW stands firmly behind the belief that the three reports suggest a broader picture of adidas' poor practices in China and confirm CLW's credibility. We welcome and offer assistance to any media groups who are interested in interviewing adidas workers, as well as reporting on these three facilities.

http://www.chinalaborwatch.org/20080818adidas.htm

http://www.adidas-group.com/en/sustainability/statements/2008/China_Labor_Watch_Issue_Response_2008.asp

http://www.adidas-group.com/en/sustainability/_downloads/factory_list/2007_November_Factory_List.pdf